New York State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission New York Festival Barge Files

Using a variety of funding, a railroad car transport barge was remodeled and outfitted at Brewer's Shipyard on Staten Island and furnished with exhibits designed by the firm Johnson Hehr Nehin. The resulting New York Festival Barge, the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission's largest public program, transported a floating educational exhibit entitled "This Glorious Cause" and a crew of performers and craft demonstrators.

A total of 912,887 people visited the barge from June through October of 1976 as it toured 37 sites along 3,000 miles of the state's waterways.

This series contains records documenting the creation and operation of the New York Festival Barge (the "Bicentennial Barge") by the New York State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission. The records were created or collected by Philip Johnson, Barge project director.

The series contains ca. 35 black and white photographs, ca. 200 negatives (35 mm) and approximately 1,200 slides depicting the barge during refitting, in tow, and docked at various sites. There are images of crewmembers, visitors, exhibits, demonstrations, performances, displays, speakers, and entertainers during the barge's tour of the state.

The series also contains financial records, construction specifications and blueprints, crew information, towing schedules, logs, guest books, captions to exhibits, scripts, souvenir folders, newspaper clippings, information on local arrangements, copies of the barge newsletter "The Barge Irregular," and other records and correspondence related to arrangements, equipment, and administration.

B1632-12: This accretion contains one oversize original piece of art work depicting the New York Festival Barge. It is unknown whether the art work was created as a design concept for the barge's renovation or for other purposes. Two other pieces are included which comprise a single poster or display that may have been used on the barge.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.